1. Field
This disclosure relates to a backlight unit and a liquid crystal display device including the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Liquid crystal display (“LCD”) devices form an image by receiving external light, unlike plasma display panels (“PDPs”) and field emission displays (“FEDs”) which form an image using self-emitting light. Thus, the LCD devices require a backlight unit for emitting light on the back surface thereof.
As for the backlight unit for an LCD device, a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (“CCFL”) has been used as a light source. However, when the CCFL is used as a light source, it may be difficult to provide uniform luminance and color purity may deteriorate when the LCD device has a large screen.
As a result, a backlight unit which uses three color light emitting diodes (“LEDs”) as a light source has been recently developed. Since the backlight unit using the three color LEDs as the light source provides improved color purity, as compared to the backlight unit using the CCFL, it is used in a higher quality display device, for example. However, the backlight unit using three color LEDs as a light source costs more than the backlight unit using the CCFL as a light source. To reduce cost, use of a white LED which emits light by converting light emitted from a single color LED chip to white light has been proposed.
However, although the white LED is not as expensive as the three color LEDs, color purity and color reproducibility are reduced compared to color purity and color reproducibility of an LCD device including the three color LEDs. Accordingly, there remains a need for a lower cost light source capable of providing improved color purity and color reproducibility.